Field
Embodiments described herein relate to selectively etching silicon.
Description of Related Art
Integrated circuits are made possible by processes which produce intricately patterned material layers on substrate surfaces. Producing patterned material on a substrate requires controlled methods for removal of exposed material. Chemical etching is used for a variety of purposes including transferring a pattern in photoresist into underlying layers, thinning layers, or thinning lateral dimensions of features already present on the surface. Often it is desirable to have an etch process which etches one material faster than another, for example, to improve pattern transfer process proceed. Such an etch process is generally said to be selective of the first material relative to the second material. As a result of the diversity of materials, circuits and processes, etch processes have been developed with a selectivity towards a variety of materials.
Dry etch processes are often desirable for selectively removing material from semiconductor substrates. The desirability stems from the ability to gently remove material from miniature structures with minimal physical disturbance. Dry etch processes also allow the etch rate to be quickly stopped by removing the gas phase reagents. Some dry-etch processes involve the exposure of a substrate to remote plasma by-products formed from one or more precursors. For example, remote plasma generation of nitrogen trifluoride in combination with ion suppression techniques enable silicon to be selectively removed from a patterned substrate when the plasma effluents are flowed into the substrate processing region. However, the silicon selectivity occasionally needs to be even higher for certain applications.
Thus, methods are needed to increase silicon selectivity relative to silicon oxide, silicon nitride and other materials for dry etch processes.